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Bobby Jindal

How Republicans can start winning presidential elections again

2. Compete for every single vote. The 47% and the 53%. And any other combination of numbers that adds up to 100 percent. President Barack Obama and the Democrats can continue trying to divide America into groups of warring communities with competing interests, but we will have none of it. We are going after every vote as we try to unite all Americans.

3. Reject identity politics. The old notion that ours should be a colorblind society is the right one, and we should pursue that with vigor. Identity politics is corrosive to the great American melting pot and we reject it. We will treat all people as individuals rather than as members of special interest groups…

5. Stop insulting the intelligence of voters. We need to trust the smarts of the American people. We have to stop dumbing down our ideas and stop reducing everything to mindless slogans and tag lines for 30-second ads. We must be willing to provide details in describing our views.

6. Quit “big.” We are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, or big anything. We must not be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys. We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive. We are the party whose ideas will help the middle class, and help more folks join the middle class. We are a populist party and need to make that clear.

Blowback

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Jindal’s points are fine, but I’m really annoyed with the fact that he feels the need to start his Presidential campaign for 2016 now. I didn’t have to hear about Dubya’s big plans for the GOP until 1998.

Romney did not go out campaigning against 47% of the people, if Jindal believed that he must get his news on the Today show…or CNN where this column originates.

Louisiana voted for Mitt Romney 58-41.
They voted overwhelmingly for Rick Santorum in the primary.
But it looks like they turned out, and would have liked to walk thru the door with Mitt Romney.

Please republicans, stand up and be proud of your candidate and what he stood for even if you had to read it on the web page for yourself. I am not sure that so many republicans are trashing Mitt Romney as the media wants you to believe. I saw an earlier version of this story about Jindal, which made him look like even more of an idiot, it was…In The Boston Globe.

Mitt and Paul at Red Rock is still the place that we want to head for. The media is trying to undermine that with our republican leadership as we speak. But don’t believe what you read. Call their offices and tell them what you want.

Democrats have won the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential Elections (including 2000). I don’t know if Mr. Jindal has the right answer, but there does need to be an answer going forward. America needs two competitive, robust opposing political parties. What message will get through to the discouraged who (for now, at least) cannot find a reason to vote?

Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 15, 2012 at 3:56 PM

Well Democrats have failed to get a majority of the popular vote in 3 of the last 6 elections. So let’s not pretend that vast majorities of Americans have been swarming the polls in support of democrat presidential nominees. Clinton didn’t crack 50% on his re-elect and he wasn’t anywhere close to 50% in 1992.

Well Democrats have failed to get a majority of the popular vote in 3 of the last 6 elections. So let’s not pretend that vast majorities of Americans have been swarming the polls in support of democrat presidential nominees. Clinton didn’t crack 50% on his re-elect and he wasn’t anywhere close to 50% in 1992.

dczombie on November 15, 2012 at 4:41 PM

Exactly. Republicans do well when they represent a well-defined alternative, as in 2010. They suck when they’re seen as Dem Lite, as in 2012.

It couldn’t be any worse than that brilliant plan of nominating Mr Sure-Fire Ultra-Electable.

ddrintn on November 15, 2012 at 4:38 PM

Honestly, I’m not sure the candidate matters as much as the organization. Obama was a horrible candidate, but his organization won the election for him. I mean, what did Obama do to move the needle? But his campaign worked hard and smart, and his consultants created a tough ad onslaught from which Romney never recovered.

If we want to win, we need to start setting up an organization capable of bringing every conservative to the polls on election day.

Honestly, I’m not sure the candidate matters as much as the organization. Obama was a horrible candidate….

hawksruleva on November 15, 2012 at 4:50 PM

Are you kidding? Obama was a terrific candidate from the viewpoint of choosing someone that the Dem base would be enthusiastic about. Find a candidate that the base is excited about, and the organization will come.

Are you kidding? Obama was a terrific candidate from the viewpoint of choosing someone that the Dem base would be enthusiastic about. Find a candidate that the base is excited about, and the organization will come.

ddrintn on November 15, 2012 at 4:55 PM

That was certainly true 4 years ago. But in 2012, he was a candidate who hadn’t fulfilled his promises, looked like he didn’t care, and had a small, petty, and depressing message.

The Dems have been working on their ground game since Kerry lost. While you get more volunteers via excitement, you need to have a ready framework to handle all of those people and get them moving in a productive direction.

Agreed but having a good candidate helps overcome some of the demographic issues. I wish we could sort of meld Jindal and Rubio together and get a super candidate. Rubio is probably the best pure politician; he’s probably an even better speaker than Barry circa 2008 because Rubio doesn’t umm his way through extemporaneous remarks. Rubio however is lots of sound and fury signifying nothing. Jindal is a genius, but has no political skills. SOTU response 2009…

That was certainly true 4 years ago. But in 2012, he was a candidate who hadn’t fulfilled his promises, looked like he didn’t care, and had a small, petty, and depressing message.

Doesn’t matter. Obama’s base was more enthusiastic than the GOP base both times. Think 2004, the Bush/GOP base, and the lack of enthusiasm that Dems felt about Kerry.

The Dems have been working on their ground game since Kerry lost. While you get more volunteers via excitement, you need to have a ready framework to handle all of those people and get them moving in a productive direction.

hawksruleva on November 15, 2012 at 5:03 PM

You get more volunteers via excitement, but you get nothing with just an organization alone. Volunteers create the organization; the organization isn’t going to get people fired up.

3. Reject identity politics. The old notion that ours should be a colorblind society is the right one, and we should pursue that with vigor. Identity politics is corrosive to the great American melting pot and we reject it. We will treat all people as individuals rather than as members of special interest groups…

5. Stop insulting the intelligence of voters. We need to trust the smarts of the American people. We have to stop dumbing down our ideas and stop reducing everything to mindless slogans and tag lines for 30-second ads. We must be willing to provide details in describing our views.

It amazes me that Jindal doesn’t recognize that 3 and 5 are contradictory. To pretend that race/ethnicity does not exist is to tell people who are in racially homogenous churches, schools, neighborhoods or cultural institutions that they are all delusional. Yes, our society (in certain places, Louisiana in particular) is more integrated than it ever has been. But the barber shop I go to is all black, my parents church is predominately black, the charity organizations I participated in were all black (any Jack and Jill alumnus up in here?) The point is that there’s some powerful cultural traditions that emerge from identity with race/ethnicity. Trying to tell people they are crazy or that they’ve been hoodwinked into identifying with their race isn’t respecting their intelligence or their traditions.

I’m sorting through some old things I wrote several years ago, and I came across this quote from David Horowitz in 2009:

The only way to defeat the left — and I have failed in twenty years of arguing this to persuade conservatives — is to turn the table around and attack their moral self-image. Leftists are in fact the enemies and oppressors of women, children, gays, minorities and the poor, and conservatives should never confront them without reminding them of this fact.

The only way to defeat the left — and I have failed in twenty years of arguing this to persuade conservatives — is to turn the table around and attack their moral self-image. Leftists are in fact the enemies and oppressors of women, children, gays, minorities and the poor, and conservatives should never confront them without reminding them of this fact.

It was true then. It’s true now.

INC on November 15, 2012 at 5:34 PM

As I have said so often – they like their dummies in modern day plantations, for votes only, uneducated and miserable.

The are never truly liberal/progressive. They don’t care for women (otherwise they mope about Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan and etc), they don’t care about the dead in Liby and in Syria, they don’t care about Iran (othewise Obama would have been for the freein of Iran during their youth’ revolution), and on and on and on….

Leftists are fanatic about their tyrannies.

The right believe they can win them over politely and with silky gloves. Thugs and charlatans fear only few things: mockery, true fighting power and bigger impertinence than theirs.